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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28281186">the arrangement</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkly/pseuds/starkly'>starkly</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>you've been thunderstruck [23]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Historical Fantasy, M/M, Royalty</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:48:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,718</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28281186</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkly/pseuds/starkly</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After sabotaging every potential relationship set up for him by his royal father and mother, Prince Thor is sent off to be wed to King Stark, a man he's never met before with a reputation for being unpredictable and aloof.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tony Stark/Thor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>you've been thunderstruck [23]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064666</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>121</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the arrangement</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally written for NaNoWriMo 2020 and <a href="https://aleator.tumblr.com/post/636101268371341312">posted here</a> on my tumblr writing blog. This fic was proofread before being uploaded here but is otherwise unchanged.</p>
<p>Prompts taken from the AU-gust 2020 challenge list on Twitter. Day Twenty-Three: Arranged Marriage AU.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As the third son and fifth child blessed upon his parents, Thor has known he’ll never be king. He’s never minded much--being king seems like a lot of work and trouble for too little reward. While his older siblings are stuck inside at lessons or learning to be military commanders, he runs free with his little brother Loki, causing their own kinds of trouble. At night, his mother braids his hair and tells him fairytales, and life is good.</p>
<p>Over the years Thor doesn’t concern himself with learning how to run a country or how to be a good soldier. He’s given an education and training, of course, but he doesn’t put much effort into any of it. By the time he turns sixteen, it’s clear he’s been blessed with good looks and a sharp mind he doesn’t do much with except cause trouble. His elder siblings tell him to take things more seriously, but why does he need to bother with that when all of them can be serious instead?</p>
<p>At eighteen, his father tells him that he’s going to be married off for the good of the kingdom. Thor should have known it was coming, but he’d purposefully avoided seeing the writing on the wall in some vain hope that it wouldn’t happen if he ignored it. There’s no shortage of princes and princesses willing to be wed to him, so Thor does the only thing he can think to do: he sabotages every potential relationship before it can even start.</p>
<p>Thor manages to do this for three years, making himself out to be the dumbest, meanest, most annoying prince in all the lands. Whatever he thinks will get his potential suitor to change their mind about marrying him. He’s sure he’s earning himself a truly terrible reputation that will hinder all his future endeavors, but it’s a small sacrifice to make to not be married off to some oaf.</p>
<p>At one point his father doesn’t try to set him up with any new princess or duke or anyone else, and for a while Thor thinks he’s finally won. Then Odin comes in with the news that King Stark of Avalon has agreed to marry Thor without question, no meetings necessary. Thor will be sent to Avalon, he will be married, and he will secure an alliance with a coastal kingdom that Asgard has long needed.</p>
<p>Thor knows little about Avalon or King Stark, just that the kingdom is far away and its king is unpredictable and aloof. There are rumors about how terrible Avalon’s king is, but nobody can really tell him anything specific, so Thor has no idea what to expect, but none of it sounds good.</p>
<p>(He begs his mother to convince his father to change his mind, but she just strokes his hair and kisses him on the forehead as she holds him and tells him everything will be okay.)</p>
<p>Thus Thor packs up his things and makes the trip to Avalon with only a few of the royal guard with him. Their capital city sits on the coast, and it’s cold and windy when Thor arrives. He’s escorted into the castle by Stark’s guards and told that King Stark is in a meeting and cannot be disturbed. It’s rather anticlimactic and doesn’t do anything to settle Thor’s nerves.</p>
<p>He’s taken to a small dining room and given food and drink while he waits, wondering if he can still do his usual plan of being horrible and annoying and Stark will send him home. He ponders this for a while and Stark still doesn’t appear. At last a woman with red hair and a mildly annoyed expression comes in to apologize for the delay, but His Majesty won’t be able to see him tonight.</p>
<p>This is both annoying and a relief, but Thor doesn’t say anything as he’s led up to a room where his luggage has been placed. It’s clearly not the king’s bedroom, for which he’s grateful, but it’s a nice room nonetheless. The woman apologizes again and tells him he’ll be able to meet Stark tomorrow, and if he needs anything at all to please ask one of the guards.</p>
<p>She leaves him with two guards outside his door, probably so he doesn’t run away in the middle of the night. It would be kind of insulting if he wasn’t actually considering doing it. Instead he pokes around the room, seeing if there’s anything interesting lying around that might give him some clue as to who he’s going to marry.</p>
<p>In his search, he accidentally knocks over a bust on a bookshelf and nearly jumps as the whole shelf shifts to the side. Intrigued, he realizes that the bookshelf is hiding a door, and he doesn’t hesitate to go through it, curious to see what’s on the other side of this secret passageway.</p>
<p>It’s dark so he doubles back quickly to get a lamp from his room, then continues through the passage until he finally finds another door at the other end. Carefully, he takes a minute to figure out how to open the door, and when he hears the sound of something heavy shifting he figures he must have done it.</p>
<p>He exits the passageway into a room like he’s never seen before, one full of strange machines, and on the other side of the room is a man bent over one such machine, oblivious to Thor’s presence.</p>
<p>Thor should really just leave--he likely isn’t supposed to be here in this strange place--but he can’t help himself as he says, “Hello?”</p>
<p>The man startles, dropping something that clatters to the floor in his surprise, and Thor feels guilty for startling him.</p>
<p>“Sorry!” he says, too loudly in the expansive room, so he repeats more quietly, “Sorry.”</p>
<p>“Who are you?” the man says at last, having finally spotted him across the room.</p>
<p>“Uh, my name’s Thor,” he replies, taking a few steps closer so he can see who he’s talking to better. The man is wearing plain clothes and looks messy, like he’s been working all day. Not exactly the kind of person you would expect to find in a castle. Perhaps he’s the castle blacksmith?</p>
<p>“Thor?” the man repeats, squinting like he’s trying hard to remember something.</p>
<p>“I’m not from around here,” Thor offers helpfully. “I’m here to marry the king.”</p>
<p>For some reason this startles the man even more than Thor’s presence here did. He quickly stands up, turning toward Thor properly for the first time.</p>
<p>“That was today? I am so sorry,” the man says, running a hand back through his already messy hair.</p>
<p>“For what?” Thor asks, now thoroughly confused. This man isn’t at fault for Thor being here.</p>
<p>“Did you just arrive? You must have, Pepper would have broken down the door otherwise,” the man continues rambling, making his way between the machinery and tables toward Thor. “How was your journey? Have you settled in yet?”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” Thor says this time, holding up his hand to get the man to stop. “Who are you?”</p>
<p>The man stops in his tracks, staring at Thor. Then he says, “Um. Anthony Stark?”</p>
<p>Thor stares back. Unless there’s more than one Anthony Stark living here, then--</p>
<p>“You’re the king?” he blurts out, too surprised to even be polite about it. The man doesn’t look like a king at all, and he’s down here in this strange, secret room in the middle of the night working on God knows what.</p>
<p>“Yes, ah, I am,” Stark replies, looking sheepish as he rubs the back of his neck. “I’m so very sorry for not meeting you earlier. I just made a huge breakthrough in one of my projects, you see, and I completely lost track of time…”</p>
<p>Thor doesn't know what to do. This man is nothing like he expected; he doesn’t seem like some angry tyrant, or someone cold and calculating and unfeeling. Yes, he didn’t expect all the rumors to be true, but he expected a little truth to them.</p>
<p>“Are you alright?” Stark asks, presumably because Thor hasn’t said anything for a full minute.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’m-- I’m just surprised, is all,” Thor finally says. “I wasn’t expecting…”</p>
<p>Stark smiles then, apparently not offended by whatever Thor could possibly say to finish that sentence. “I get that a lot. The rumors you’ve undoubtedly heard are most likely about my father. He wasn’t the, uh, warmest ruler.”</p>
<p>That makes sense, Thor thinks, but he’s still so baffled by all of this that he can’t think of anything to say. Stark tries to make things less awkward by putting a hand on Thor’s shoulder, which just highlights how Stark is shorter than him. It’s strangely cute.</p>
<p>“It’s late,” Stark says, seemingly unfazed by Thor’s strange behavior. “You should rest and tomorrow I will meet with you as I should have today.”</p>
<p>“Of course, Your Majesty,” Thor says automatically, reverting back to learned etiquette in the face of all this confusion.</p>
<p>“Please, you can call me Tony,” Stark replies, smiling at Thor. “We’re to be married.”</p>
<p>Thor nods. “Right. Married. I’m looking forward to it.”</p>
<p>King-Stark-now-Tony’s smile curves a little more on one side, like he’s holding back his amusement. “Are you?”</p>
<p>“I was actually considering behaving so poorly you would send me back home,” Thor admits, which makes Tony actually laugh.</p>
<p>“I hope you’ll reconsider that,” he says, and Thor smiles back at him. “How did you even get in here?”</p>
<p>“Oh, uh--” Thor gestures back at the bookshelf he came through. “I found some kind of secret staircase.”</p>
<p>“Then you ought to go back through that way,” Tony says, guiding him back over to the bookshelf.</p>
<p>“Will I get to see more of this room tomorrow?” Thor asks as Tony activates the hidden mechanism that unlocks the door.</p>
<p>“If that’s something you’re interested in,” Tony says with a surprised smile. “I would be happy to show you around. Assuming my steward doesn’t kill me for missing your arrival today.”</p>
<p>“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Thor replies, laughing softly. “Good night, Tony.”</p>
<p>Somehow all his tension and anxiety about his upcoming nuptials have faded away, and while he’s still nervous, he feels like maybe this could all turn out okay, just like his mother said.</p>
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